LUCKNOW: The real estate regulatory body has taken punitive action against a prominent developer for failing to complete housing projects and leaving scores of homebuyers in the lurch.
The Uttar Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority (UPRERA) has ordered to deregister two projects of Ansal API while putting four projects under observation.
According to UPRERA, the real estate developer has been involved in serious financial irregularities.
The order dated February 10 deregistered projects in pocket 2, sector P and J, in Sushant Golf City under section 7 of RERA Act. Further, for pocket 3, sector A, the authority instructed the promoter to complete remaining work and upload the completion certificate by March 20 on the UPRERA website.
Senior officials of UPRERA said that 224 home buyers had filed a complaint in six projects of Ansal API in Sushant Golf City. The developer was first served a notice in the first quarter of 2019 and then an extension was given for completion. However, the company failed to comply.
“During forensic audit, it was found that there were severe financial irregularities in the project besides diversion and siphoning of funds amounting to Rs 606 crore,” said UPRERA in a statement.
Complaints from allottees included issues like non-possession of units, non-refund of amount deposited, violating terms and conditions of sales contract/allotment letter, among others, the statement added.
“For the pocket 3 project, the promoter has been ordered to deposit Rs 9.4 crore in respect of the funds received from the allottees within three months to complete the other projects registered. The promoter has also been charged a penalty of Rs 1.6 crore lakh, which is 5% of the total cost of the project,” it said.
UPRERA chairperson Rajive Kumar said, “Deregistration order was served based upon information, inspections, complaints registered and non-compliance of provision of RERA Act. While the authority had already given strict warnings, this decision was taken after we gave them ample time to respond after repeated notices. This step should be seen as a warning to others”.
He added that there were compliance issues in managing accounts and audit and the developer should have delivered projects phase-wise. Instead, the developer expanded hugely, leading to mismanagement of resources and mortgaging of land.
“We also found that there was surplus money in the project, which should have been utilized towards project completion,” said Kumar.
Responding to the action, Anurag Singh, a member of the legal team of Ansal API, said, “We are looking into the matter for legal options and a decision will be taken accordingly.”